Pfizer calls on pharmacists to promote medicine adherence

Unused medicines cost NHS England £300m per year

Pfizer Healthy Partnership (PHP) is targeting pharmacists in a new campaign to promote medicine adherence.

The campaign aims to raise awareness of the benefits of taking medicines as prescribed and will position pharmacist as 'medicines experts', who can help people understand how, when and why they should adhere to a prescription.

Posters encouraging people to seek advice from pharmacists will be displayed in pharmacies, with supporting material published across the national and regional media.

The campaign is inline with the government's plans to improve effective use of medicines, after it was estimated that unused medicines cost NHS England £300m per year.

“Through Pfizer Healthy Partnerships we provide pharmacists with a range of tools and resources aimed at helping them to support their patients in taking their medicines as prescribed, leading to an overall improvement in long term health,” said Jason Perfitt, head of pharmacy at Pfizer.

PHP has distributed information about the campaign to professional organisations and pharmacists, ahead of the launch to the general public in October.

“Not taking a medicine as prescribed means people don't receive the real benefit from it,” Martin Astbury, president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

“As a result, their symptoms may not be managed effectively and their health could suffer further.

“The government has identified pharmacy as having a key role in the future of the public's health and we welcome any initiative that supports this, highlighting the important services pharmacists provide to their local communities,” Astbury said.

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